Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Clair and I make lots of progress, too!

Day one of the Suzanne May clinic, my main focus was getting Clair to carry herself higher in front, and breaking a bad habit I've developed of jamming my feet too far home into the stirrups, so my heels can't flex down. I also added a new tool to my toolkit -- how to ride by something "spooky" without letting the horse look at the object and swing her haunches way out. Once I got the hang of it, I really had Clair's number and she gave up the ghost (pun intended).

More video to come of Clair on day two, with both me and trainer Holly on board. Holly got lovely half passes to the left!

There's a schooling show at the barn right around the corner on February 21. R is pretty sure she's going to show Dakota, and I would love to show Clair. The only wrinkle: I'm having my gallbladder out on February 17. I think I can probably do it, but I'll just have to wait and see. I was on a horse two days after having my appendix out, so I'm optimistic!

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Please don't show Claire after having your gallbladder out. I think you might be able to do it because you can bear the pain. But you shouldn't do it because the general anesthesia that you will receive will not be fully out of your system and your brain will be "fuzzy" for a while. Not a good thing to do for her first schooling show of the season. If she were to spook and your reaction is slow, both of you could get hurt. And you never know for sure what a horse might react to. I want to keep reading about your progress - not worth it.

You are probably right! I'm thinking I may just take her over and keep her in hand, introducing her to the venue from the ground. That way she can have an outing, I won't push things too hard, and I can read the tests for R, who hasn't ever shown dressage before.

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About Me

Born in 1971, I've been obsessed with dressage since 1994. I own an Oregon mustang gelding and a Dutch warmblood mare. I'm working towards my bronze medal (just my third level scores left). My husband and I have four dogs and work in real estate. I am also a dressage trainer.